A Paper on The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt (original) (raw)
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Analysis of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt
(Cızık, C. 2019. Analysis of Totalitarianism in Hannah Arendt's Views, Ankara) In this study, based on the views of Hannah Arent, the place of totalitarianism in the historical scene, the factors that prepare totalitarianism and the elements that provide dominance of totalitarianism are discussed. The aim of the study is to present Arendt's thoughts on totalitarism with a general evaluation. In accordance with first of all, the place of the concepts of antisemitism and imperialism in the preparation stage for totalitarianism is tried to be examined and the meaning of these concepts for Arendt is examined. In the following parts, the elements such as mass, terror, secret police, propaganda and organization which are considered as elements of totalitarianism are tried to be explained. Those examples are considered as tools of totalitarianism and with those tools as an unique and modern phenomenon, absolute domination of totalitarianism is discussed.
Jurnal Ledalero, 2015
If we wish to understand a totalitarian system as a whole, we need first to understand the central role of the concentration camp as a laboratorium to experiment in total domination. Arendt’s analysis of totalitarianism in the twentieth century shows how a totalitarian regime cannot survive without terror; and terror will not be effective without concentration camps. Experiments in concentration camps had as their purpose, apart from wiping out any freedom or spontaneity, the abolishing of space between human beings, abolishing space for politics. Thus, totalitarianism did not mirror only the politics of extinction, but also the extinction of politics. As a way forward, Arendt analyses political theory that forces the reader to understand power no longer under the rubric of domination or violence – although this avenue is open – but rather under the rubric of freedom. Arendt is convinced that the life of a destroyed nation can be restored by mutual forgiveness and mutual promises, t...
Jurnal Ledalero
This article aims to map out Hannah Arendt's proposal on democratic political action as a solution to the problem of totalitarianism. For this purpose, the article will consist of three parts. The first part will deal with the problem of totalitarianism as reflected in The Origins of Totalitarianism. The second part will deal with Arendt's philosophical proposal of democracy as political action against totalitarianism as its enemy. It argues that freedom and constitution are the basis of people's political action in public space for the sake of nation and community. The third part will deal with the problem of human rights and Arendt's proposal of political natality. According to the principle of natality, people as subjects of politics are capable to find their own ways to preserve their own life. Human transcendence is actualized in time frame. As conclusion, the paper will discuss the contribution of Arendt's thoughts of people's transcendence and its implications in facing the mob-rule.
Afkar Wa Affak, 2019
This paper aims to shed light on Hannah Arendt's analysis of the growth of the modern anti-Semitism. She assumes in her monumental masterpiece, The Origins of Totalitarianism (published in 1951) that the identification of the modern anti-Semitism with the rise of the nation-states in Europe is a misleading thought and a mere ready-made explanation. For her, the modern anti-Semitism grew as the European system of nation-states crashed. On the other hand, Arendt, through almost all her writings, has seemed supporting the idea of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine, for that, this paper aims as well to discover Arendt's position towards founding a Jewish homeland, her proposals concerning that issue and her relationship with Zionism.
Political Characterology: On the Method of Theorizing in Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism
American Political Science Review 2016
Notwithstanding its status as a modern classic, Hannah Arendt's study on The Origins of Totalitarianism is generally considered to be lacking a clearly reflected methodological basis. This article challenges this view and argues that in her study Arendt implicitly applies a characterological method of political theorizing that provides a genuine conceptual framework for systematically connecting structural analysis with ideographic historical investigations and with a political theory of action. On this conceptual basis, the study renders an analysis of anti-Semitism, imperialism, and totalitarianism not merely in terms of abstract structural concepts, but in terms of dynamic character-context constellations. Arendt's account not only shows interesting parallels to a number of similar conceptual reflections, especially in the 20th century's theory debate; it can also serve to inspire the current debate on methodology in political theory.
Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism and the Social Sciences
This book examines the nature of totalitarianism as interpreted by some of the finest minds of the twentieth century. It focuses on Hannah Arendt's claim that totalitarianism was an entirely unprecedented regime and that the social sciences had integrally misconstrued it. A sociologist who is a critical admirer of Arendt, Baehr looks sympathetically at Arendt's objections to social science and shows that her complaints were in many respects justified. Avoiding broad disciplinary endorsements or dismissals, Baehr reconstructs the theoretical and political stakes of Arendt's encounters with prominent social scientists such as David Riesman, Raymond Aron, and Jules Monnerot. In presenting the first systematic appraisal of Arendt's critique of the social sciences, Baehr examines what it means to see an event as unprecedented. Furthermore, he adapts Arendt and Aron's philosophies to shed light on modern Islamist terrorism and to ask whether it should be categorized alongside Stalinism and National Socialism as totalitarian.
Eric Voegelin and Hannah Arendt on the Nature of Totalitarian Regimes
VoegelinView, 2023
are two of the greatest political thinkers of the 20th century. With similar background and stories (both Germans who fled from Nazism and established themselves in America), they differ on their account of the regime that made them immigrate. Their debate, however brief, can enlighten us not only about that dark period of human history but also some present predicaments that we face. The debate began with the publication of the book The Origins of Totalitarianism, which for the first time made Arendt one of the most famous political thinkers of the 20th century. After the book's release, Waldemar Gurian, founder of the magazine The Review of Politics, commissioned Voegelin to write a review of the book. In the same publication, a few months later, Arendt publishes her response. Before the formalization in the form of essays, Voegelin sends a letter to his compatriot anticipating some topics that would appear in the review and is answered with a brief letter.
Attributions of Imperialism to Totalitarianism: From the Perspective of Hannah Arendt
In this paper, I will clarify how to imperialism contributed to the rise of totalitarianism. Firstly, I will urge upon causes as regards the rise of imperialism,and how to connect with totalitarian regimes as regards political and economic contribution on it. On the other hand, we can classify an idea of progress and use of violence among contribution to totalitarianism. However, I will clarify three fundamental decisive ways of totalitarianism: decline of nation-states, bureaucracy and racial ideology. Moreover, we will see in the conclusion that there are relations between these concepts not casual, but racism, bureaucracy and the idea of progress in imperialism has a remarkable influence on the rise of totalitarianism, already as mentioned by Arendt.
This article traces the similarities between the theories of totalitarianism developed by Hannah Arendt (1951) and Erich Fromm (1941). It argues that Arendt and Fromm's invocation of social theory are quite similar, relying upon the atomization thesis originally developed by Fredrich Tönnies, to explain the transition from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft, community to society . Ironically, though Arendt is the existentialist philosopher, it is Fromm, with his use of Kierkegaard, who puts to use existentialist philosophy toward a convincing analysis of totalitarian movements. This begs the question: why is Fromm forgotten and Arendt remembered? Particularly given the similarity in their careers, intellectual refugees fleeing Germany, trying to comprehend the horrors that transformed their home into a Fordist factory for the production of human corpses.